Leave a Legacy

Kevin Spafford is Farm Journal’s succession planning expert for the Farm Journal Legacy Project.He hosts the nationally-televised ‘Leave a Legacy’ TV, facilitates an ongoing series of workshops for farm families across the U.S., and is the author of Legacy by Design: Succession Planning for Agribusiness Owners.

He Was Born Country

Apr 19, 2011

Most people know him as the front man for Alabama – the legendary band that, in 1999, was named Country Group of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America.

After a recording career that spanned 42 number-one singles, Randy Owen and the boys from Fort Payne, Ala., have moved on to the next challenge… For Randy, it’s a solo recording career, a new autobiography, ranching on the ‘home place’ (a purebred Hereford/Angus Ranch---Tennessee River Music) and community service -- he’s on the board of trustees for Jacksonville State University and is a founding member of ‘Country Cares’ for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Based on his music, many people think they know Randy. No doubt he’s graced your family room on the TV, and who hasn’t sung along with their favorite Alabama tune? Yet, in his recent autobiography, Born Country, you’ll learn there’s a lot more to Randy than music.

In this book he talks about VISION for his business, his band: “…an audience-oriented band that forged its own definable sound and style drew a whole new audience to country music and made it big.”

He also discusses the importance of FOCUS: “…if you want to go fishing, go fishing. If you want to go hunting, go hunting. Exercise if you want. But if you’re off to exercise or hunt or fish and someone wants to stop you and distract you with some urgent matter, that person is not your friend.

“Don’t stop,” he writes in the book, “to talk to people and be responsible for everything that’s going on in the world. If you continue to stop every time to solve every problem that comes along, you’re going to end up destroying yourself.”

“It’s a simple lesson – drop the idea that you have to be all things to all people all the time.”

Owen also discusses in his book the importance of the FAMILY FARM: “I think the family farm is an essential part of American life, and I try to do whatever I can in the state of Alabama to help young farmers-to-be get on their feet and pursue that life.”

“I have many other passions that get me out of bed in the morning and put me in touch with the community at large, especially if it involves helping farmers and preserving the family farm.”

“My goal is to encourage young people to stay in the field of farming. One of my efforts has been to lobby the legislature of the state of Alabama to actively promote family farming as a career choice.”

“If there’s not a future in farming, you might say, then we ain’t got a future.”